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Daily Business Report — July 15, 2010

Skills Center Receives LEED Gold Certification

The new Educational Cultural Complex Skills Center for San Diego Continuing Education — a part of the San Diego Community College District — has been awarded a LEED Gold certification for sustainable and green design by the U.S. Green Building Council. The Skills Center, which opened in September 2009, is the district’s center for career and technical education. It is the district’s fifth facility to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. The 67,010-square-foot facility supports instructional and career training programs in Automotive Technology, Automotive Mechanical and Electrical Repair, Automotive Body Repair, Automotive Upholstery, Graphic Printing Technology, Computer Graphic Arts, Cisco Lab, Business Information Technology and Welding. It is the largest automotive technology training center of its kind in the country.

The Skills Center is funded by the District’s $1.555 billion Propositions S and N construction bond program. A photovoltaic panel array (360 panels at 185 watts each) on the complex carports, generating a total of 66.6 kilowatts. A Web-based computer monitoring system allows users and visitors to see exactly how much solar energy is generated at any given time. The Skills Center project team included NTD Architecture; O’Connor Construction Management; Jaynes Corp.; Nowell & Associates; Gafcon Inc.; and Scott Ellis and Julia Parker, URS Corp.

Fresh & Easy to Open in North Park and Oceanside

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market will open new stores Sept. 22 in North Park and in Oceanside. The North Park store is at 32nd Street and University Avenue. Stores in Oceanside are at River Road and College Boulevard and at College Boulevard and Oceanside Boulevard. They are among nine stores that will be opened in September. The company plans to hire more than 180 employees for the stores and is accepting applications. Entry-level positions start at $10 an hour and there are quarterly bonuses of up to 10 percent. A 401 (k) with company match also is offered.

Paseo Carlsbad to Get New Tenants

Corner Bakery, East of Bali, Pretty Please and Menchies have leased space in Paseo Carlsbad. They join anchor tenants BJ’s Restaurant Brewhouse and P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, both of which opened in 2009. Paseo Carlsbad is a development of PacTen Partners for CPT/SC Title Holding Corp. The 75,000-square-foot center is located at Palomar Airport Road and Interstate 5. The project is in the final stages of construction and slated to celebrate its official grand opening in the fall.

In each of the recent transactions, Bill Shrader and David Strauss of the Cushman & Wakefield Urban Property Group represented the landlord. All tenants are scheduled to open for business upon completion of construction, which is scheduled for October.

Miramar College to Get Parking Structure and Police Building

McCarthy Building Companies Inc. has broken ground for the construction of a new 828-space parking structure and an adjacent 6,000-square-foot police substation at San Diego Miramar College. The police station building is designed to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, and is on track to be the first LEED Platinum project for a higher education institution in San Diego County. The $17.8 million project is part of the San Diego Community College District’s $1.555 billion Propositions S and N construction program, which is providing for new instructional and career training facilities, major renovations, campus-wide infrastructure projects, and parking and public safety enhancements at City, Mesa and Miramar colleges, and six Continuing Education campuses.

Harley Ellis Devereaux is the design architect, with International Parking Design as the architect-of-record. Jessen Wright Structural Engineers is the structural engineer, Randall Lamb Associates is the electrical engineer, SC Engineers is the mechanical engineer and Burkett & Wong Engineers is the civil engineer. Schmidt Design Group is serving as the landscape architect. Gafcon Inc. is the program manager for the Propositions S and N construction bond program.

CliniComp Intl. Names New CFO and COO

CliniComp Intl. has appointed James T. Kesaris as chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Kesaris has more than 20 years of executive experience and will report to Chris Haudenschild, chairman and CEO. Kesaris has held senior management positions in the financial services, marketing and distribution of branded consumer products, aerospace manufacturing, and professional sports and entertainment industries. He will oversee CliniComp’s financial, operating, marketing and sales functions. Most recently, Kesaris was a business development and investor relations associate with SCMS Capital LLC. Previously, he held the positions of senior vice president and CFO at USE Credit Union, executive vice president of operations at Peninsula Holdings Group, and CFO at Tatum Partners. Kesaris earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Illinois. He earned his CPA license during his tenure with Arthur Young & Co. in Chicago.

NASSCO Delivers USNS Charles Drew

NASSCO delivered the USNS Charles Drew to the Navy on Wednesday, a 689-foot supply ship that will serve in the Navy’s Military Sealift Command. The ship is capable of delivering almost 10,000 tons of dry cargo and petroleum products at one time to Navy and allied ships at sea. The ship is named in honor of Dr. Charles R. Drew (1904-1950), the African-American surgeon and hematologist who pioneered the procedures for the safe storage and transfusion of blood. Including the Charles Drew, NASSCO has delivered ten T-AKEs, which are also known as Lewis and Clark-class ships. The eleventh through thirteenth ships are under construction at the San Diego shipyard. Construction of the fourteenth and final ship of the Lewis and Clark class will begin in the fall.

Objectiva Software Solutions Names President

Robert Corace, former managing director at Symphony Services, has joined Objectiva Software Solutions Inc., a provider of software development outsourcing services, as president. Objectiva’s offices in San Diego, Boston, Beijing and Xi’an, China specialize in enterprise software solutions, content and document management, Web-based and client-server applications and mobility software and platform engineering services

Anametrix Appoints VP of Sales

Jon Shoff has been appointed vice president of sales of Anametrix. Shoff is a veteran of the analytics industry and previously worked at WebSideStory and Visual Sciences. Blaise Barrelet is CEO of the company.

North Island Credit Union Celebrates 70th Anniversary

North Island Credit Union will celebrate its 70th anniversary on Friday with a special event at its Naval Base Coronado branch. It is welcoming all military and civil service personnel on base for a free barbecue lunch. The credit union will present a special anniversary gift to to Navy Morale, Welfare and Recreation to fund several programs for sailors and their families while stationed at North Island NAS over the next year.

The credit union was formed July 1940 as Naval Air Station San Diego Federal Credit Union to provide credit union services to civil service personnel and their families on North Island Naval Air Station. During this time, North Island was a major U.S. base supporting operating forces in the Pacific — including over a dozen aircraft carriers, the Army, Marines, U.S. Coast Guard and Seabees. The city of Coronado later became home to the aircraft repair and overhaul facility workers, to others who supported Navy operations, and to their families.

For over 70 years, the member-owners of North Island Credit Union have been Department of War, and then Defense Department, employees; Navy personnel; defense contractor employees; others in the armed services; family members, and in recent years, open to the general San Diego population. Today’s 94,515 credit union members are in all 50 states and in many locations beyond North America. As of December 2009, individual and business member deposits in the credit union total $1.1 billion.

The Daily Business Report is produced by REP Publishing Inc., publisher of San Diego Metropolitan Magazine, the North Park News, Kensington News and the West Coast Craftsman. (619) 906-4104.

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In the coming months, Probosky Research (one of California’s leading opinion research firms) will continue its partnership with SD METRO to survey San Diego residents about topics of interest to our readers. We’d like to throw open the door for suggestions for topics. What do you want to know? What do you think you know, but aren’t sure? What are you certain you know, but want to prove it beyond doubt? Ideally, we’d like to see questions that have to do with public policy.
Some areas may include Mayor Filner’s first 100 days job performance, should the city be responsible for economic growth and the creation of new jobs, how important are infrastructure improvements to our daily lives (streets and bridges, etc.), how important is water independence, how satisfied are residents with public transit or how do city residents value Balboa Park and other open spaces? Do you believe the City Council should revive the Plaza de Panama plan for Balboa Park?
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